After reading the book "Gang Leader for a Day," I was inspired to visit the site of the Robert Taylor Homes on Chicago's South Side - an infamous group of about 28 public housing buildings. I remember driving down the Dan Ryan Expressway and seeing the shell of the last building they tore down about a year ago. Seeing it this weekend was unreal. A giant eraser was taken to the entire area. All that remains are a few worn down driveways and the remnants of basketball courts. In the place buildings used to stand, new condos are going in at a rapid pace.
After taking some photographs, I sat at a Starbucks on the corner of 35th and State Street with Chris - who was born and raised in Chicago. It was about eight years ago that his baseball team played for the city title at Comiskey Park, which lies just across the Dan Ryan Expressway from the old site of the Robert Taylor Homes. He told me if someone would have told him he would be sitting at a Starbucks at 35th and State in eight years, he would have laughed in their face. From crack deals, prostitution and general poverty to condos and Starbucks.
I've asked people around the area, "Where did they all go?" I'm asking about the thousands of people who called Robert Taylor home. How and why do you go about displacing a group of people that large? Is it good or bad? For the area? For the people who suddenly found themselves homeless? So many questions, so few good answers.
After taking some photographs, I sat at a Starbucks on the corner of 35th and State Street with Chris - who was born and raised in Chicago. It was about eight years ago that his baseball team played for the city title at Comiskey Park, which lies just across the Dan Ryan Expressway from the old site of the Robert Taylor Homes. He told me if someone would have told him he would be sitting at a Starbucks at 35th and State in eight years, he would have laughed in their face. From crack deals, prostitution and general poverty to condos and Starbucks.
I've asked people around the area, "Where did they all go?" I'm asking about the thousands of people who called Robert Taylor home. How and why do you go about displacing a group of people that large? Is it good or bad? For the area? For the people who suddenly found themselves homeless? So many questions, so few good answers.
4 comments:
check cabrini greens -- they're probably hanging out there.
chicago's projects = disaster. getting rid of them is a good thing.
Check out my buddy's docu-photo project on the Robert Taylor Homes.
www.jackbridges.com/
Most of Cabrini is gone too. Reverse gentrification. Some suburbs are the new ghetto (Key is "some"). Interesting point was brought to my attention recently, though. Nearly all the folks in the projects rely on public services for survival - food stamps, health clinics, right down to public transportation. Problem: those offices are still in the city. For people who can't afford to take off of work, it's taking them literally all day to take buses and trains from the burbs to the city - and back. There's no infrastructure to support low income population in the suburbia. Did their problems just get worse? We'll see Seems like it's sink or swim... though, it kind of was before, too.
gorgeous shots elie... and way to seek out something you're interested in - regardless of the outcome.
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